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P3 processor life expectancy

D

defconplus

Member
I was wondering what approximate life expectancy of a P3 coppermine will be, if it is:
(1) Not overclocked.
(2) Overclocked with default voltage/and stock cooling (retail fan/heatsink).
(3) Overclocked with higher voltage and better cooling (Alphas, peltiers, etc.).

Thanks...

I've heard that a P3 is expected to be normally operable for about 8 years, and overclocking will shorten this to about half. I assume that the life expectancy will decrease depending on how far away the overclock is from spec?

And how about the life expectancy of video cards? 🙂
 
Just my opinion, overclocked or not so long as the chip is properly cooled it should last a long, long time. There are a heap of Commodore 64's there are out there that are still kicken and god knows those baby's are starting to show their age!

I heard the 8 year/half when overclocked theory but I'm not sure what the source was and if that source had any credibility.

Oh well, it probably does not matter too much. We will all be upgrading again next year and selling our old stuff to someone on e Bay who may have to worry when it will die.
 
At this stage in computer history it is rare that a working cpu is even usable after 8 years (or 4) due to technology advances!
 
I had my 300A@450 for about a year, with no problems. I now have a Duron 600 only because I saw that these puppies could overclock nicely (not to mention that my proc was slow compared to what was out there).

With AMD stating that they will release a faster CPU every 5-6 weeks in 2001, this point becomes moot (unless one keeps it for a spare comp). I believe most procs will last around 10 years, overclocking can halve that, but the majority of us overclockers treat our procs with sweet, tender lovin' care (ie. lotsa cooling). this help sto lengthen the life of our procs. However, on thing that no processor can get away from is the slow deterioration that occurs when voltage flows through the proc. I cannot remember where I read this (I think it was on the old Anandtech boards), but, because processors are constantly being used, all the crap that they go through slowly kills them.
 
Sedimin, are you talking about electromigration? That is the sad aspect of a processor's life 🙁 It's like our computers are our children, so you know how we get attached..
 
Well, I "still" have a Hercules Dynamite 128 2MB PCI card.

I bought that in 1996. It's still under warranty until next year. That's a 5 year warranty and it still runs like a champ.

3dfx V3 Retails have a lifetime warranty.

Hercules' Retail boards have a 3 year warranty.

So expect certain boards to fail after the specified warranty period. I say a certain % of boards.

Like some have said: mild overclocking (a couple of Mhz over spec) or even controlled-heat oc'ing is acceptable.

Just pray your CPU or Vid card chipset is not one of lower denominator ones that are expected to fail after the specified warranty period.


 
From an Intel Engineer:

10-15 years is the goal with non-overclocked chips.

at maximum voltage and high overclock, I have experienced just short of 2 years CPU life before they can't overclock much at all.

Eric
 
I got 256k vid card that works just fine. Heck my 512k vid card has a turbo jumper 😛

these things MUST be at least 10 years old if not 15
 
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